Delays through Gatwick, 29/12

[ExRes]

I'm not saying there is, its just my personal preference, of course at one time the limits on twin engine aircraft were such that a Trans Atlantic flight was a no go, hence we had the 3 Engined Tristar and DC10 to get around that problem.

I do find it amazing that I make some comment about my personal preferences whether they are statistically valid or not, is suddenly taken as me trying to make a an actual fact, similarly when I suggested that it was handy that 747's have additional landing gear compared to some other wide bodied jets it was taken that I was proposing that all other jets should have additional landing gear when I made no such comment.

You're obviously a very influential person

Personally I'd rather not have any figures to compare 2 engine to 4 engine catastrophes, but I think it's a mathematical certainty that having 2 engines fail on a 2 engine plane is a tad worrying whereas 2 engines failing on a 4 engine plane is not quite so terminal, I can't understand why some posters on here can't see what is so obviously clear

 

[najaB]

You're obviously a very influential person

Personally I'd rather not have any figures to compare 2 engine to 4 engine catastrophes, but I think it's a mathematical certainty that having 2 engines fail on a 2 engine plane is a tad worrying whereas 2 engines failing on a 4 engine plane is not quite so terminal, I can't understand why some posters on here can't see what is so obviously clear

Preference is preference and I won't criticise anyone over preferring 4 engines rather than two, but there is a difference between feeling safer and actually being safer. Any event that causes two modern turbofans to fail, will likely cause all the engines to fail, no matter how many there are.

It's also worth pointing out that a twin with one engine out will perform better than a quad with one engine out.

The main reason I won't criticise a preference for more engines is that, other than the A340, quads are more interesting and tri-jets were the coolest things in commercial aviation.